The District of Sechelt has now filled in a sinkhole that was about five-feet (0.4 metres) wide and 10-feet (0.92 metres) deep, discovered on Seawatch Lane last week, but the roadway remains closed as crews work to find a permanent fix.
“We got some geo-tech engineers in and they used ground penetrating radar,” Sechelt Mayor John Henderson said. “They did a preliminary assessment of what was happening and now they’re refining that so we are going to get a more substantial, more final report in the coming days.”
Henderson said an issue with underground water movement is expected to be the cause of the sinkhole that just appeared last week.
“I’m no geotechnical expert myself, but anytime you’ve got underground water, and there’s lots of water running all over Sechelt, you’ve got to be aware of it and things are built and designed for it,” Henderson said. “In this case I guess something changed, the way the water was running, or where it was running. We don’t really know at this point.”
He expects more answers soon, but noted the District is focused on ensuring residents’ safety by shutting the roadway and keeping in touch with homeowners in the fairly new development located just past The Shores in West Porpoise Bay.
For now the District of Sechelt is picking up the bill for the sinkhole, but the developer of the area may be on the hook in the future.
“We’ve got to look at that when the time comes I guess,” Henderson said. “Right now our focus is on public safety and afterwards when we get enough data and professional advice we’ll figure out who needs to take care of it in the long term.”
